


a waltz for the misfits

by Anonymous



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, i wonder if this is the first fic for the origins smp/sbismp, speedrun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:48:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29363523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Her voice is different, through the water. It burbles, and has an odd echoey lilt to it that the radio never did quite pick up. When he gets used to the effect he decides it's lovely, like almost everything in this sprawling world. Its ceiling must be so, so high. No matter how tall the mountains he scales are, Jack can never see the roof. It's freeing.---A lone blazeborn discovers a world beyond his own, and it is almost worth it.
Relationships: Jack Manifold & Niki | Nihachu, Jack Manifold & TommyInnit
Comments: 7
Kudos: 104
Collections: Anonymous





	a waltz for the misfits

It is a strange friendship they have fostered.

Of all the people who have cropped up on the radio as of recent, Niki is his favourite. Pleasant and soft-spoken, she is kind to him when things get bad and forthcoming when they're good. They swap stories for hours of things the other has never experienced, and tell each other they're lying, and act all fake-outraged in response. It's funny every time. As far as routines go, it is swiftly established and suspiciously comfortable. As far as relationships go, he thinks it's the closest thing to a friend he's had in living memory.

Piglins are standoffish, complex creatures for all their inherent stupidity. They'll politely inspect his gold, but they'll never hang around for a conversation about feelings, and even after all these years he barely understands their intricate social rules. After everyone starts talking, the stark change is really, _really_ nice. Less lonely, which is one of the many words the new people teach him.

Burning, in Jack's experience, is a pretty pleasant sensation. Like the immediate thrill of survival, or a lava bath, or the feeling of dancing. Often they all overlap. The first time he sees Niki in the flesh, he finally understands why the others say burning with such miserable disaste. Taking on the challenge of leaving his home dimension takes weeks of feverish planning and hiding and sprinting around. The process requires owning so much more at once than he is comfortable with, something Niki says he'll have to get used to when he gets out.

Over time he does. At first it's scary, y'know? It's kind of cold in the Overworld, yeah, but it's also generally much safer. Nothing to worry about in the day, and there's an incredible abundance of food - so much food, God, it had felt _shameful_ at first to gorge so easily on so much - and a variety of experience that makes the breadth of his childhood feel so very small. As if he'd wasted so much time staying alive rather than building anything with it. But reaching into the current to shake Niki's hand inspires a biting, flickering kind of pain that does not subside for minutes and he wonders if that is what fire means here. No wonder he's never had visitors.

"I am _so_ sorry," she gasps out from the river, hands hovering above his, careful not to let a single drop fall. "I promise I didn't know."

Her voice is different, through the water. It burbles, and has an odd echoey lilt to it that the radio never did quite pick up. When he gets used to the effect he decides it's lovely, like almost everything in this sprawling world. Its ceiling must be so, so high. No matter how tall the mountains he scales are, Jack can never see the roof. It's freeing.

Even if they can never touch, at least Jack and Niki can talk for as long as they want now. At least he has Tommy, the little avian shit, and all the other oddballs that have collected around Niki's lagoon. The kid calls them misfits. He likes being one of those misfits more than he has ever had licence to enjoy anything. So he wants to thank the little merling, profusely, strange as it would be. For giving him a reason to leave. For everything he's discovered. For, despite everything, the comprehension of burning.

"S'alright," Jack says instead. He's never shared a smile with someone before. It feels the way he imagines Tommy does when he leaps from ever higher peaks, showing off to Jack with ever more daring tricks. Not that he knows much about people, but Jack thinks it's his way of guiding Jack from the portal to their new community, and his joy is contagious. It feels like that. Like being alive, instead of just surviving. Like the feeling of having danced with another, and being tired from the effort, and being totally safe despite not being able to run. "Just nice to finally meet ya."


End file.
